Science & Technology Desk Science & Technology Desk

Iran has jumped 53 spots from the world’s No. 57 — four decades ago — to No. 4 in the field of nanotechnology since the victory of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, said the secretary of Iran Nanotechnology Innovation Council (INIC).

This comes as the country has made tremendous advances in other fields as well such as medicine, military, agriculture, science and technology during the past forty years.

Speaking to IRNA on Tuesday, Saeid Sarkar hailed the fast growth of nanotechnology in the country over the past four decades.

This as well as other scientific advances made in Iran since 1979 are all among the achievements of the Islamic Revolution, he added.

According to IRNA, in 1979, few people in Iran had heard terms and expressions pertaining to modern sciences and technologies such as nano, stem cells and space technologies.

This comes as today, not only these are quite familiar words to those involved in the fields of science and technology in Iran, but the country also ranks among top states in the region and world in these areas and is an exporter of a large number of technologies.

On the back of the country’s technological achievements in the post-Islamic revolution era, domestic experts have managed to, by relying on their own capabilities, launch satellites, manufacture airplane and ship and produce nano products in the fields of, among others, medicine and health.

Sarkar said at present, more than 30,000 specialized workforce are involved in the field of nanotechnology in Iran, adding in the year to March 2018, Iran published over 9,000 articles pertaining to the field of nanotechnology to rank fourth in the world following China, the US and India.

He noted that by March 2019, the number of articles in this field is expected to surpass 10,500.

In the year to March 2018, Iran exported nano-based products worth more than $60 million to over 45 countries including South Korea, China, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Turkey, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain, Sarkar said.

Iran’s overseas sales of nano products are expected to witness a 100-percent growth in the year to March 2019, compared to the figure for the same period last year, he added.